Populism and the Netroots

You know, populism has gotten a bit of a bad rap from the effete and elite. Populism scares the hell out of the party apparatchiks because populist issues do not come out of think tanks on the coasts. Populist issues are fostered in Grange Halls and at high-school sporting events; at kitchen tables and in the corner booth of small-town diners throughout the land. In no political area is the saying “all politics is local” more of a truism than in populist movements. This thing has a direct effect on me; therefore I am going to do something about it. That probably means I will have to throw my lot in with that group over there that is trying to accomplish something else. Separately we fail, but together we succeed.

The netroots is a natural fit with populism. So of course we scare the hell out of Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the establishment Democrats. Howard Dean is the only one who gets us. He takes us at face value – we are dedicated and we are pissed off. We watched our parents absolutely gut our party. They sold out the core Democratic principles to become “Republican Light” (bad taste and not at all fulfilling) and they damned near appeased us out of existence.

I've said this before and I'll say it again and again and again...We are not our parents democratic party. We are our Grandparents Democratic Party.

I Thank a God I don’t believe in (you stand at the gates of Auschwitz and tell me you can still believe in any God) for the netroots and Howard Dean.

Because of the netroots, we have taken back the political process, and if you don’t believe me, just wait until the new congress takes their seats in January. You think they are going to get any free passes just because they are not-Republicans? Think again.

We put them there, and we can take them away; and if they fuck up, we most certainly will. We will be watching every vote. We will be demanding accountability. Claire had better join Emmanuel Cleaver and just put me in the email address book, because I want answers about everything.